Methods and products for connecting a device to an external display are well known in the art. For example, a laptop computer may be connected to a television display using a wired connection such as a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cable. Using the HDMI cable, a single laptop device may connect to a television and mirror content on the laptop display to the television screen. One limitation to using a HDMI cable is that the laptop device must be physically connected to an input of the television, and the distance between the laptop and television may be no greater than the length of the HDMI cable. In addition, only a single device may be connected to the television using a HDMI cable.
Methods and products for wirelessly connecting a device to an external output device are also well known in the art. For example, a laptop device may connect to a speaker wirelessly using Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data. While Bluetooth allows for multiple devices to be connected at the same time, Bluetooth technology is typically limited to low-bandwidth situations, making it unsuitable for video streaming and screen sharing applications.
Another wireless technology standard for projecting a device display to a remote display, e.g., television, is Wi-Fi Direct, a Wi-Fi Alliance standard that allows Wi-Fi capable devices to connect directly to one another without requiring internet connectivity. Using Wi-Fi Direct technology, a group of several devices may connect simultaneously. While not all devices need to be Wi-Fi Direct Certified, all must have Wi-Fi capability and at least one must have Wi-Fi Direct capability. Although Wi-Fi Direct enables wireless connections to be established between devices, it does not provide a protocol for sharing content.
The Miracast® wireless display standard, certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, defines a protocol for displaying multimedia between devices using Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct®. Implementing Wi-Fi Direct, Miracast® provides operations for negotiating video capabilities, setting up content protection, streaming content, and maintaining a video session. Unlike Bluetooth technology, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Miracast® allows for sending up to 1080p HD, or even higher resolution video and thus is suitable for video streaming and screen to screen content sharing. For example, Miracast® makes it possible to wirelessly stream video content from a laptop computer to a television display. While Miracast® using Wi-Fi Direct technology allows for wireless content sharing between two devices, it does not allow for multiple video sources to connect at the same time. In other words, it does not have a mechanism for negotiating content sharing when input is received from multiple devices simultaneously.
In view of the foregoing limitations of previously known systems and methods, it would be desirable to provide systems and methods that enable a computer user to share with several other computer users a view of his or her computer screen.
It further may be desirable to provide systems and methods, for example in a classroom or conference setting, for a teacher or moderator to select any one of multiple student/conferee computer users to share with a teacher, moderator or the classroom/audience, a view of the respective student's or conferee's computer screen.
It further may be desirable to enable a teacher or moderator to simultaneously monitor the computer displays of students or conferees.
It still further would be desirable to provide a method of managing the display of the various users and to facilitate sharing between the multiple computer screens.